Former President George W. Bush to receive lifetime Secret Service protection

Former presidents will now receive same lifetime Secret Service protection (The Associated Press)

Former President George W. Bush will now receive the same lifelong Secret Service protection that his father has received since leaving office in 1993.

Without fanfare, President Obama has ended a two-tiered system of U.S. Secret Service protection for former presidents to provide lifelong, round-the-clock protection for all former chief executives.

The move is a response to open-ended concerns over security.

Obama signed legislation into law to indefinitely extend protection from 10 years to lifelong for former presidents who served after 1997.

Before the change, former President George W. Bush had been scheduled to lose U.S. Secret Service protection 10 years after leaving office or in 2019.

Obama would have lost post-presidential protection 10 years after leaving office or in 2027.

First ladies who served after 1997, including Laura Bush and Michelle Obama, will also receive lifetime protection.

George and Laura Bush are living in Dallas and maintain their ranch in Crawford, Texas.

“Former presidents engage in numerous activities, diplomatic and humanitarian efforts overseas, and they’re still symbols of our country,” said a Secret Service official speaking on condition of anonymity.

“That’s one of the reasons we felt it was good to have (protection) for life,” the official said. “They’re symbols of our country and they could be potential targets for those seeking to do harm.”

The change ends a system of protection that provided lifelong protection for former presidents and first ladies who served before 1997, including former Presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, and their wives. Nancy Reagan also receives lifetime protection.

The legislation raced through Congress without notice.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina, a former federal and state prosecutor serving on the House Judiciary Committee, introduced the legislation at the request of the U.S. Secret Service, according to his spokesman, Josh Dix.

The U.S. Secret Service “foresaw a problem down the road” providing manpower and budget resources for lifelong or decade-long protection for different former chief executives, particularly when protection could be extended without notice in response to national security concerns, Dix said.

“There wasn’t a specific incident that led to the action,” Dix told the Houston Chronicle. “We’re living in a global environment with national security threats and with former presidents traveling abroad. The Secret Service saw a potential risk.”

The Secret Service, a $1.6 billion-a-year law enforcement agency with 6,500 employees, draws hundreds of officers in business suits from the agency’s 3,200 special agents to provide armed protection and security screening for the president, the vice president, their spouses and children under the age of 16, as well as visiting foreign dignitaries.